Apparatus for melting and purifying butter and fats.



No. 823,803. PATENTED JUNE 19, 1906. 0. D. MONROE. APPARATUS FOR MELTING AND PURIPYING BUTTER. AND FATS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT.1B.1905.

flltorms CHARLES DALLAS MONROE,

. To wll whom it may concern:

vide an improved form of butter and other fats may "UNITED STATES PATENT oFFIoE.

OF ELGIN, ILLINOIS, AssIeNoR To AMERICAN FARM PRODUCTS COMPANY, A OORPORATIONOF NEW JERSEY.

I APPARATUS FOR-MELTING AND 'PURIFYING BUTTER AND FATS,

and a resident of Elgin, in the county of Kane.

and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in A paratus for Melting and Purifying Butter and Fats of which the following is a specification. I This invention relates to apparatus for pu' rifying butter and fats.

The main object of this vention is to proapparatus whereby e melted and purified by direct contact w1th heated air, thereby insuring rapid, uniform, and mild heating and avoiding the possibility of giving .the

butter 'an undesirable taste by raising the same to excessive temperatures, as sometimes happens when butter is melted in vessels heated'from the outside.

Further. objects are to so arrange the apparatus that the been longest exposed to the heating effect, to provide an improved means for msuring a thoroughintermingling of the air and melted fat, an to provide means for causing continued circulation and heating of the air and alsodadmitting of renewing the air when desire I accomplish these objects by the device shown in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation,

of a butter and fat purifying apparatus in section constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1, showing the transverse form of the heating-pans.

The apparatus shown in the drawings con sists of a series of pans, an air-heater, and a blower, all arranged to cause butter or other fats to be melted through contact with heated air and to be spread over a large area and thoroughly mixed with air.

In the construction-shown the pans 3 are arranged one above the other and are inclined alternately in opposite directions, so that each will overflow into the upper part of the pan next below. .The pans are tubular and are connected at their ends by vertical passages, so asto form a continuous conduit for air. The upper pan 3 is. provided with an inlet-hopper. 4 near its highest end. ;The

Specification of. Letters Patent. g 7 Application filed September 13. 1906. Serial No. 279,004.

.the en Patented Jun. 19, 1906.

hopper 4 has a pair of intermeshing corruated feed-rolls adapted to crush the lum s of per 4 and deliver the same to the upper pan 3. The lower end of the lowest pan 3 is arran ed to discharge its contents into a tank 5.

utter or other fat which is fed into the op- T e lower end of the conduit is connected by an air-passage with the upper end of the conduit, so as to form a continuous passage through which air may be circulated by means of a blower 6'. The passage 7 between the blower 6 and the upper an is provided with a gate or damper 8. This gate is so ar-,- ranged that whenit is in the position shown byfull lines in Fig. 1 theblower 6 will draw air from'the upper pan and merely -cause repeplted circulation of air through said conduit.

en the gate 8 is turned to the osition shown by dotted lines, the blower wil take in fresh air and the gate will deflect and dis char e the impure air from the upper pan. purest air will come into contact with suchof the butter or fat as has of heating-coils, receives taining a plurality t arge end of the blower 6 air from. e disc and after heating the same delivers it to the lower pan 3 through the passage '10. The air-inlet 11 is located above the li uid-outlet 12 of the lowest pan 3, as indicate in Fig. 1,

- 7 5 A eater 9, comprising an air-chamber con- 1 so as 'to prevent the melted fat -fromrunning into the heater. The upper pan 3 is prowhic prevents the fat current of air.

The hopper 4, from which the masses of butter or fat are fed to the upper pan 3, is provided with corrugated intermeshing roll- .ss I

ers 14, which are driven in opposite directions, as shown b the small arrows in Fig. 1. The driving mec anism for these rollers is omitted. from the drawings. The rollers 14 have the eifect of crushing the large masses of butter and deliveringthe same to the. pans in the form of small articles which will rapidly melt in the heated air passin along the pans.

The air after .being passes through the passage 10 into the lower eate by the heater 9 end ofthe series of ans 3. The butter and fat becoming melte spread thinly over thebottom of the pans 3 and flow alongthe pans,

drippin from each pan to the next below at d s of the an.- There is thus a thin,

film or stream 0 moltenbutter at 15 near the bottom of each of the vertical assages 16, connecting the adjacent endsof t e. pans.

, pans and in this wa removes al The air forces its wa through this film and also comes in direct contact with the surface of the melted fat during its'passage along the that can be remove by oxidation. The air is forced along the series of pans in a direction opposite to the flow of the melted fat, for the reason that when the fat is first delivered to the pans the principal action of the heated air to is melt the fat. ing the lower end of the series of pans after having been continuously treated to the action of the air finally comes into contact with the purest air, which is just entering the pans'and which is most efiicient for removing impurities. The fat is thus freed of all of the im urities which can be removed by heating1 an aeration. The pans are preferabl broa in 1proportion to t eir depth, so t at the me ted fat will spread in a thin layer across the bottom of the pans and become thoroughly exposed to the action of the air during its passage along the pans. The purified fat is delivered by the spout 17 to the tank 5: v

When the gate 8 is in the osition shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1, fres air will enter the opening 18 andbeforced by the pump 6 t en into contact with the heating-coils and I through the series of pans and will finally be discharged at 1.9 after having treated the fat Fresh air may then in the pans. The room which incloses the pump should also be provided with one o more openings 20 for the admission offr'es air and the discharge of exhausted air. en the ate Sis in the closed o'sition, (shownby full ines in Fig. 1,) then t e air after having passed through the series of'pans is again directed to the heating-coils, where it is re-,

heated and againpassed through the pans. In this way the air ma be used over and over.

tie admitted by turning the gate 8 to the dotted position whenever the air has exhausted its activity as a puriimpurities The fat on approachfying agent. In this way much heat may be saved. The heat radiated from the pans will heat the room inclosing the pans and tank 5, so that the butter or fat in said tank will remain in the liquid state.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A butter or fat melting and dpurifying apparatus comprisin an incline tubular conduit open at its en s, a hopper for feeding fatty particles to the upper end of said conduit, a pair of longitudinally-corru ated rollers meshing with each other and fiosingthe throat of said hopper and adapted to control the discharge thereof, a passage connecting the upper and ower ends of said conduit, an'

' air-heater in said .passa e, means for causing air from said heater to ow along the conduit into contact with its contents, and a receptacle for receiving the molten fat at the lower end of the conduit. T

2. The combination of a series of horizontally-disposed closed pans arran ed one above the other and adapted to ho' d butter or fat, each of said ans being slightly in clined and connected? at its lower 'endwith the next succeedin pan to form a closed co'nlduit, and means or causing heated air to flow along said condiiit for melting and p'iirifying the contents of the pans, an air passage connecting the lower end of the lowest pan with the upper end of the uppermost pan, a blower, in said passage for causing av circulation of airalong the pans, a heater for heating said air, an Y means for admitting fresh air and discharging impure air at the npp'er part of said passage. Signed at Chicago ber, 1905.

CHARLES DALLAS MONROE.

Witnesses V 4 EUGENE A; RUMMLER', GLEN C. STEPHENS.

this 13th day of Septem- 

